The line-up for this year’s edition of the annual Thrash and Burn tour has been announced, and it’s terrible; so terrible that I don’t even have any witty way of expressing it’s terribleness. So I’m not here to make more jokes at the expense of some deathcore bands; I hope they all have fun on the tour, and I hope everyone who attends the tour has a terrific time, and I hope that all parties involved cherish the memory forever and ever and ever.

I would, however, like to discuss the fact that, as was the case with this year’s Summer Slaughter trek (which is organized by the same folks who do Thrash and Burn), fans are being asked to vote for one final band to join the bill. Because while some of the candidates are awful (Dr. Acula, The Devastated, etc.) and I don’t know some of the candidates enough to have any real opinion of them, one of the candidates is a band I actually like: White Arms of Athena.

Which is why I am here to ask you to please vote against White Arms of Athena being on this bill.

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Foo Fighters fans fretting that Wasting Light would relinquish its hold on the meaningless Soundscan charts after dropping to #2 last week after three debut weeks at #1… fret not, as Dave Grohl and co. are back up top! This week’s #2 comes in the form of a big surprise, as Zack Wylde’s Black Label Society sold a ton of copies of the acoustic equivalent of a remixes album.

Lots of interesting action elsewhere, too, with new records by Anvil and Hate Eternal making the charts, and a bunch of other strong sellers. Also: a case study in Sixx A.M. / Motley Crue chart history, another one on the myriad Aerosmith greatest hits collections selling gangbusters, and on Metallica’s Master of Puppets‘ chart legacy finally coming to an end.

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This is completely fucking offensive. More crabcore / flat-iron haircut / disco-dance garbage. Fuck this band. Fuck them in the ears.

-VN